Coco.how many times a day to water?

hiya
i was going to use COCO for my medium.my setup is going to be in just over 1.2sq meter ill be using CFL lights to root then move to MH to veg for about 4 weeks then HPS for 8 weeks till harvest

my question is how much water per day will i be using ? 6 litre pots for veg then transplanting to 11 litre pots for flowering ill have 12 plants in total under a 600w lamp

great thing about coco is it does not retain water as much as soil so harder to overwater i normally water till trts to appear uthe bottom of plant then leave till appears dry as you would soil- although i find coco takes longer to grow plants might jusbthe seeds i had but after 3-4 weeks there were not as big as others in soil -however they are catching up at quite a rate now so i supose it balances out

i used this as well


CANNA UK - UK Coco A and B About

anymore info on watering with coco would be great guys

i'm glad you started this thread, i was just about to start a coco substrate thread!

the link biggie posted looks to be very helpful- just scanned it, but i'm going to immerse myself in it asap!

i don't have much to add about coco, but my grow is now just past the 8wk mark for flowering, and i've been using coco as my medium for my first grow, so if you just click on the link to my grow journal in my signature, you can see for yourself... i think it has been very good, although i've definitely been having some nute issues lately, and i'm really happy to have biggie's link to peruse. while the nute deficiencies i'm having now are typical at this point in a grow, it is a bit extreme, and i think my plants ideally need to grow for another couple weeks, at least.

in a pm conversation i had with nongreenthumb, he mentioned that he thought coco could be a really good way to go, exhibiting some of the positive results of both hydro and soil grows. i think maybe he had seen some grows done with coco, don't know if he's used it before.

good luck!

biggie said:

great thing about coco is it does not retain water as much as soil so harder to overwater i normally water till trts to appear uthe bottom of plant then leave till appears dry as you would soil- although i find coco takes longer to grow plants might jusbthe seeds i had but after 3-4 weeks there were not as big as others in soil -however they are catching up at quite a rate now so i supose it balances out

i used this as well


CANNA UK - UK Coco A and B About

Click to expand...

one problem i'm having is finding out how frequently to water and how much to feed plants (and what to feed them) that are planted in coco. the only guides i seem to be able to find refer to special flood and drain systems, etc... i just have 'em in pots, and have been watering and feeding them manually like a typical soil grow, which people have told me is fine... but do you see the problem? the guides for soil take into consideration that soil has nutrients in it already, which coco does not, but in a soil grow, you are supposed to drench the plants with water and then let it dry for a period of 3-5 days. if you constantly water roots in soil, they suffocate and are prone to rotting, right? is it not the same for coco? is it okay to feed the plants more often, like every day or every couple of days? maybe since coco stays pretty loamy, even when wet, because it drains well (not retaining too much moisture) so the roots can still breathe?

to boil it down, here is the question that is burning in me: which brand of nutes is best for coco, and what is the recommended amount and frequency to feed to plants in coco, if you are treating it like a soil grow, not an ebb & flow? (not the soil or hydro recommended amounts) anyone out there know, or have links to info?

thanks

i use the coc a and b nutes through out a feed at a ratio of 5ml of both a and b along with organic norwegian sea kelp extract (its most nutes as miricle grow with out being artifical 100% organic) PER 2000ml of water and th is divided between my 4 White widow/NYC deisel plants then every say 3-4 days i use plain water - althought i think thats paranoia from gowing in soil - another benefit is that Coco substrate does not suffer from nute build up in soil and therefore its a lot harder to burn your plants

hope it helps - i,ll post some pi, at weekend of the 4 as they are the bushiest greenes nts i,ve ever grown

biggie said:

i use the coc a and b nutes through out a feed at a ratio of 5ml of both a and b along with organic norwegian sea kelp extract (its most nutes as miricle grow with out being artifical 100% organic) PER 2000ml of water and th is divided between my 4 White widow/NYC deisel plants then every say 3-4 days i use plain water - althought i think thats paranoia from gowing in soil

Click to expand...

cool! so you give 500ml to each plant per day with nutes, and plain water on the 3rd or 4th day?

Coco-coir is a great growing medium. You will have fungus knats at some point, they realy like coco. Weekly preventive maintanance is your best bet. Coco retains water very well, the reason you can't overwater is because it drains well too, which is why it is a better insulator than rockwool for plants. Ionic has a line that is for Soil and Coco. You could just water the same as soil, like every three days, when the leaves just start to droop its time to water again. Flushing shouldn't be necessary unless you have really bad water. The coco does absorb the salt and retain it more then the other mediums. I have tried the rockwool now for 6 grows and I'm going back to the coco. It makes great mulch and since it retains the nutrients so well, I pull out the tap root and get rid of that, let the rest sit in a big container for a few days, mix it around and put it anywhere you would use mulch. You will add some nutrients to the soil and as the coco decomposes it will help control the ph level. VV